It hasn’t even begun, but already the 2017 NFL season in Oakland is historic in its own convoluted way. Leave it to the nomadic Raiders franchise to attempt something no team has ever done, the longest goodbye in the annals of sports.

Anyone can endure a single lame-duck season, but only the Raiders could sign up for a three-year farewell tour of sorts before heading to Las Vegas in 2020. As that legendary NFL Films narration goes, the autumn wind is a Raider. And this year, the autumn wind that will blow in Oakland brings with it one of the strangest backdrops in the league’s 98-year history.

Adding to the weirdness of Oakland in 2017 is that the Raiders are a young team simultaneously on the rise and on the move, and the specter of leaving hangs over all that they do this year. Could the greatness of the Raiders finally be at hand at the exact moment they have one foot out the door?